


Sun, Rise High

by Estirose



Category: Space Vehicles
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 20:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spirit gets a little bit of help from Opportunity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sun, Rise High

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jadelennox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadelennox/gifts).



Spirit let Opportunity try to push her out of her hole, letting the other rover know she was grateful by a wave of her arm. They'd begun to work together, Opportunity giving her rocks that she ground, and she was able to store the information for later use, until Opportunity's arm could be unstuck.

It was all part of NASA's plan, plans that had been altered in the face of the loss of her voice and ability to move. She received orders from NASA, even if she couldn't respond, because even if she couldn't move, she was not a liability to them. If they could get her out of where she was, she could join Opportunity in the other rover's explorations. She could analyze better, Opportunity could move better.

That was how everything should be. What one rover couldn't do, another could, and if they worked together everything would fall into place. Opportunity's arm couldn't move, but NASA thought it could push her to safety, or at least give her a nudge.

She hoped that she could work as well with Curiosity as well as she worked with Opportunity. She was somewhat worried; NASA had used some of her data to make Curiosity hardier, but would that make Curiosity stuck up? Would it make the new rover think that everybody was like her?

Sometimes there was a disadvantage to being as social as their generation was. Her kin, Pioneer 10 and 11, had long lost their transmitting ability and probably didn't care; they'd done what they'd needed to do and were happy to drift off alone. The Voyagers, which she'd looked up to since she was built, were happily cruising out of the solar system to bring news to aliens about Earth, and Voyagers 1 & 2 were still happily transmitting.

Opportunity sometimes piped Voyager 2's mathematical music to her. Somewhere in her databanks, she knew that the Voyagers carried all kinds of recordings, but it was Voyager 2's transmissions that Opportunity could access.

She wanted to ask Opportunity if the other rover would leave her like this if she couldn't be fished out, but she wouldn't say something even if she could transmit. It would be rude, and prejudicial, and wouldn't help at all.

Opportunity gave her one more shove, making her tread air for a second, and then she thuded to the ground. Her fellow rover started pushing in soil behind her, and she experimentally inched forward. She gave Opportunity a nod as she realized she was free.

Maybe someday NASA would fix her voice. It didn't matter. She was free to move again, she was free to explore, she was free to be with Opportunity and to meet Curiosity.

And that was all that she could ask for. To be useful, to be loved, to be all that NASA had asked for and more. she waved at Opportunity's camera as the other rover helped her move forward, towards warmer climes and a better life.


End file.
